Garland (Final Fantasy IX)
]] Garland is an antagonist in Final Fantasy IX. He worked behind the shadows and was first confronted in Terra's Castle Pandemonium, although he is first seen piloting the airdhip Invincible over Alexandria during its destruction. Story Garland is a Genome, created by the Terrans to accomplish their plans of "survival". Terra had always assimilated other planets to survive, and the soul of Terrans lived inside Genomes. When Terra was already reaching its maximum capacity, the planet Gaia was born. With their world Terra dying, the Terrans chose Gaia to be assimilated. They entrusted Garland with their plans and slept. Garland describes this plan as turning the "light of this planet... from blue (Gaia) to red (Terra)". Garland attempted to assimilate the planet by force, which resulted in failure. This setback in his plans forced him to wait for 5,000 years, when Gaia would reach the peak of its civilization and harness incredible powers such as Eidolons. In the meantime, Garland constructed more Genomes to be vessels for the souls of the Terrans. When the Eidolons were summoned by the people of Gaia, Garland, fearing their power, destroyed the Eidolons and the summoner's village, though two summoners and twelve Eidolons survived. He then attempts to control the cycle of souls in Gaia by placing the Iifa Tree on the planet. This stop the souls of Gaia from returning to the planet, slowly making it devoid of life, and allows souls of Terra to flow into Gaia instead. He then constructed another Genome, which had a stronger will than others. He named this Genome Kuja and sent him to hasten the Iifa Tree's soul dividing process. However, Kuja's role as Angel of Death was not meant to last, and Garland had created another Genome, Zidane, to replace him. Kuja, jealous of this, kidnapped Zidane and left him in Gaia. Garland let this slip by, wishing only for Kuja to remain with his purpose. He created another Genome, Mikoto to replace Zidane someday. However, when Kuja began his plans to control the Eidolons, Garland could tolerate no longer, and came to Gaia to stop his plans. When Zidane arrived in Terra, Garland revealed everything about their purpose of existence. However, Zidane decided not to accept his fate and confronted him with his friends. Garland was weakened, but Kuja then appeared to finish him; by kicking him off a ledge. However, Garland retained his presence as a formless voice and revealed Kuja's mortality, pushing that Genome over the edge. He then assisted Zidane, the only one who could hear him, with advice, and the truth about the Terrans' plan to assimilate Gaia, in Memoria. Battle The party fights Garland as a boss in Castle Pandemonium. Trivia *Garland may possibly be the antagonist from the original game or just a mere reference. Garland's appearance as an old man may be compared to the Garland in the original title who is a strong knight. The line "Once, Garland tried to use a more forceful method, but failed..." may be the reference to the original Garland's quest to conquer the world. This may tie in to many other allusions to the early games that are present throughout the story. Category:Final Fantasy IX non-player characters